Hey guys,
So as you may have known, I just moved so I have a new mailing address.
David Chiang
50 East 98th Street
Apartment 8J, Room 1
New York, NY 10029
The only thing that changed was the apartment, but trust me when I say the new apartment is so much better than the old one...
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
New Room, New Posters
Hey all, so I moved out of my old apartment (significantly -- statistically significantly -- less train noise now). I'm now in 8J1, but I'll post the complete new address soon.
For now, I wanted to let people see the new posters I have in my room. I apologize, they aren't entirely straight, but I was never really good at drawing straight lines...you should have seen me in all my art classes. I'm pretty sure I was worse than those kid drawings on that site (I forget the name, but they were real bad...).
Anyway, here are the pictures -- I'll post whole room pics when the room doesn't look like several boxes and suitcases vomited all over the place.
DISCLAIMER: YES, I'M A NERD.
So first, T cell diversity. It's pretty important, so I got a poster from eBioscience.
Cytokines are also important in regulating various issues with our body.
The following three below represent three cool things about me:
1). Treg. I love these things. They basically prevent your body from undergoing inappropriate immune responses. So it's hypothesized that autoimmune diseases, allergies, and asthma are a result of messed up Treg. In cancer, it's hypothesized that Treg suppress the immune system from attack your cancerous cells
2). Wicked, the musical. Saw this in England, courtesy of the Bings (via an Overseas Seminar -- thank you, rich people who love to edumicate Stanford students!). It was great.
3). Flow cytometry. I would have a picture of the LSR II (a flow machine), but instead, I have a poster of the various fluorochromes that are used in flow cytometry. So basically, flow cytometry is a way for machines to analyze single cells. And you tag surface proteins of these cells with antibodies that fluoresce when excited by a laser shooting a beam at a specific frequency. Remember the whole electron excitation and then emission after losing energy? Yea, it's all based on that.
So the three above sit at the wall above my desk.
The next two below aren't really anything special, just more immunological networks and cytokines, though they're very important of course.
Okay, so the two down below are MASSIVE. They both are listings of all currently known human and mouse CDs (clusters of differentiation), which are basically surface and intracellular markers that identify cells. For example, T cells involved in fighting off infection can be CD4+ or CD8+, whichever marker they are will tell you how they fight off infection. Those handy-dandy Treg are CD4+CD25+ (and CD127- in humans). But yes, those posters span the entire wall lengthwise.
Okay, that's all folks. Thanks to eBioscience and Biolegend for the posters and thanks to Apollo Victoria Theatre for the Wicked poster.
Oh, and thanks to you all for reading =).
For now, I wanted to let people see the new posters I have in my room. I apologize, they aren't entirely straight, but I was never really good at drawing straight lines...you should have seen me in all my art classes. I'm pretty sure I was worse than those kid drawings on that site (I forget the name, but they were real bad...).
Anyway, here are the pictures -- I'll post whole room pics when the room doesn't look like several boxes and suitcases vomited all over the place.
DISCLAIMER: YES, I'M A NERD.
So first, T cell diversity. It's pretty important, so I got a poster from eBioscience.
Cytokines are also important in regulating various issues with our body.
The following three below represent three cool things about me:
1). Treg. I love these things. They basically prevent your body from undergoing inappropriate immune responses. So it's hypothesized that autoimmune diseases, allergies, and asthma are a result of messed up Treg. In cancer, it's hypothesized that Treg suppress the immune system from attack your cancerous cells
2). Wicked, the musical. Saw this in England, courtesy of the Bings (via an Overseas Seminar -- thank you, rich people who love to edumicate Stanford students!). It was great.
3). Flow cytometry. I would have a picture of the LSR II (a flow machine), but instead, I have a poster of the various fluorochromes that are used in flow cytometry. So basically, flow cytometry is a way for machines to analyze single cells. And you tag surface proteins of these cells with antibodies that fluoresce when excited by a laser shooting a beam at a specific frequency. Remember the whole electron excitation and then emission after losing energy? Yea, it's all based on that.
So the three above sit at the wall above my desk.
The next two below aren't really anything special, just more immunological networks and cytokines, though they're very important of course.
Okay, so the two down below are MASSIVE. They both are listings of all currently known human and mouse CDs (clusters of differentiation), which are basically surface and intracellular markers that identify cells. For example, T cells involved in fighting off infection can be CD4+ or CD8+, whichever marker they are will tell you how they fight off infection. Those handy-dandy Treg are CD4+CD25+ (and CD127- in humans). But yes, those posters span the entire wall lengthwise.
Okay, that's all folks. Thanks to eBioscience and Biolegend for the posters and thanks to Apollo Victoria Theatre for the Wicked poster.
Oh, and thanks to you all for reading =).
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Pictures Part 3
Okay, so part 3 of the pictures will now attempt to capture the essence of the squalidity in which I find myself. It's actually not so bad, but as you will see, things in this apartment are old and in major need of repair. When you see the new place, you'll understand what I mean by old.
And here we go...
So this is the window. It has no screens, so when we open them, we get lovely swarms of flies and mosquitoes. The windows also don't close all the way because someone (maybe a previous resident or the housing office) messed around with some of nuts and bolts of the window. In any case, it does little to protect us from the wonderful noises outside. Like the MetroNorth rail. It's currently 1 AM so I won't take a picture of the railway, especially because it's pouring outside, but I'll take a picture in the morning.
This is our kitchen sink and counter area. Really, the counter area is that small. The dish rack is new (courtesy of one my roommates and also 1st year MD/PhD Tim) but now imagine that the counter not being as white as it looks now and the sink consistently piled high with dishes (and the rack still somehow full). That's what it looked like when I came in in June.
This is the kitchen stove and oven. It's all gas run (I think the oven is electric), but it's white now because we Clorox wiped the entire kitchen area and I think Tim also took some 409 to the whole thing. It used to be splattered with pasta sauce and grease spots. Definitely not pretty.
These shelves are meant to hold stuff for people. If you look closely you'll see these 3x5 notecards taped to them. They're the names of people in the apartment and everyone claims a shelf (Tim and I took the cupboards above the sink). But the clutter is just overwhelming (I'll explain below).
The umbrella and jacket on the left are mine. I just got back from a downpour of rain so I left them outside to dry. Anyway, the table is filled with unclaimed things, but there's just no where to put them! Again, clutter that I'll explain later.
This is the toilet seat. I took a picture of it because if you look at the bottom right section of the toilet seat, there is a nice, deep crack in it.
Yea, we need a new toilet seat.
Oh, and random note, New York doesn't have toilet seat covers and the toilet paper definitely is not as good as CA toilet paper. Just a thought...
This is our sink. Now you see that jar of stuff in the right? Imagine all that strewn all over the sink? One of the guys (Steve, who now no longer lives with us) had his sister and his sister's friend over for a few days, and I'm pretty sure they did the tidying up. Where's my stuff, you ask? In my room. The only thing I left in the bathroom is some benzoyl peroxide.
------
Alright, so I promised you an explanation for what I think is going on with this apartment. This is a 6-person apartment right next to the MetroNorth Railroad tracks which happens to go above ground right at around 97th St. We live on 98th St. So basically every 10 minutes you hear the train clackity-clacking away either towards the North or the South. And in the mornings, because of the tourists and little kids who stand on the bridge of 97th Street and wave at the train, the conductor feels obligated to blow that horn of his.
It's a great alarm clock. (No, it's not).
The apartment itself is also in need of repair and is pretty old. However, I'm pretty sure the real estate office has let things stand where they are because people don't stay for long. They come in, realize it's not a fun place, and get the heck outta here when they can. Or, for those that stay, they don't complain at all. Our common room A/C used to be broken. Then I arrived and the first complaint I wrote was that it was broken. Sure, my room AC works just fine, and it's not that unbearably hot (all the time), but when I'm cooking and then eating...I want it to be a nice temperature, not a Stanford-summer-with-no-AC-and-no-fan-and-I'm-living-in-the-4th-floor-of-Mirrielees temperature. So now the common room AC works.
I think the clutter also exists because as people move out, they leave things with the other roommates...who then leave it with the newbies when they move out....who then...you get the picture.
Well, hopefully when Tim and I move to our new rooms that will change. We'll be moving out all our stuff of course, but I'll also be taking some of the dishes and pots with me that I can use myself. The new guys with whom we will be living don't cook and I think they eat out a lot, so it seems like Tim and I will have free use of the kitchen. And considering my training when it comes to washing dishes (long story short, I've been washing dishes since I was 5 or 6) and keeping a clean kitchen (thank 717 for teaching me how to hash properly), I'm sure we'll be fine, especially since Tim is also a neat cook.
My roommates aren't horrible people. Eric is a nice guy who doesn't even cook at all because he's in his clinical rotations now, but he's an otherwise neat guy. Kevin's presence in the kitchen is hardly felt at all because he washes what he uses. Hao cooks as well, but also cleans his stuff. Basically, the older residents who are no longer with us contributed a bit to the mess. There is a stack of dishes under the sink that a previous resident left behind because he "didn't have time to wash them."
And as for all that clutter? At some point, it will have to be tossed, but until then, it'll sit there.
Again, it's not because we're horrible people. Sometimes it's just a matter of not knowing what to do with the stuff or being preoccupied with other things. Like the fact that my first final is this coming week.
And here we go...
So this is the window. It has no screens, so when we open them, we get lovely swarms of flies and mosquitoes. The windows also don't close all the way because someone (maybe a previous resident or the housing office) messed around with some of nuts and bolts of the window. In any case, it does little to protect us from the wonderful noises outside. Like the MetroNorth rail. It's currently 1 AM so I won't take a picture of the railway, especially because it's pouring outside, but I'll take a picture in the morning.
This is our kitchen sink and counter area. Really, the counter area is that small. The dish rack is new (courtesy of one my roommates and also 1st year MD/PhD Tim) but now imagine that the counter not being as white as it looks now and the sink consistently piled high with dishes (and the rack still somehow full). That's what it looked like when I came in in June.
This is the kitchen stove and oven. It's all gas run (I think the oven is electric), but it's white now because we Clorox wiped the entire kitchen area and I think Tim also took some 409 to the whole thing. It used to be splattered with pasta sauce and grease spots. Definitely not pretty.
These shelves are meant to hold stuff for people. If you look closely you'll see these 3x5 notecards taped to them. They're the names of people in the apartment and everyone claims a shelf (Tim and I took the cupboards above the sink). But the clutter is just overwhelming (I'll explain below).
The umbrella and jacket on the left are mine. I just got back from a downpour of rain so I left them outside to dry. Anyway, the table is filled with unclaimed things, but there's just no where to put them! Again, clutter that I'll explain later.
This is the toilet seat. I took a picture of it because if you look at the bottom right section of the toilet seat, there is a nice, deep crack in it.
Yea, we need a new toilet seat.
Oh, and random note, New York doesn't have toilet seat covers and the toilet paper definitely is not as good as CA toilet paper. Just a thought...
This is our sink. Now you see that jar of stuff in the right? Imagine all that strewn all over the sink? One of the guys (Steve, who now no longer lives with us) had his sister and his sister's friend over for a few days, and I'm pretty sure they did the tidying up. Where's my stuff, you ask? In my room. The only thing I left in the bathroom is some benzoyl peroxide.
------
Alright, so I promised you an explanation for what I think is going on with this apartment. This is a 6-person apartment right next to the MetroNorth Railroad tracks which happens to go above ground right at around 97th St. We live on 98th St. So basically every 10 minutes you hear the train clackity-clacking away either towards the North or the South. And in the mornings, because of the tourists and little kids who stand on the bridge of 97th Street and wave at the train, the conductor feels obligated to blow that horn of his.
It's a great alarm clock. (No, it's not).
The apartment itself is also in need of repair and is pretty old. However, I'm pretty sure the real estate office has let things stand where they are because people don't stay for long. They come in, realize it's not a fun place, and get the heck outta here when they can. Or, for those that stay, they don't complain at all. Our common room A/C used to be broken. Then I arrived and the first complaint I wrote was that it was broken. Sure, my room AC works just fine, and it's not that unbearably hot (all the time), but when I'm cooking and then eating...I want it to be a nice temperature, not a Stanford-summer-with-no-AC-and-no-fan-and-I'm-living-in-the-4th-floor-of-Mirrielees temperature. So now the common room AC works.
I think the clutter also exists because as people move out, they leave things with the other roommates...who then leave it with the newbies when they move out....who then...you get the picture.
Well, hopefully when Tim and I move to our new rooms that will change. We'll be moving out all our stuff of course, but I'll also be taking some of the dishes and pots with me that I can use myself. The new guys with whom we will be living don't cook and I think they eat out a lot, so it seems like Tim and I will have free use of the kitchen. And considering my training when it comes to washing dishes (long story short, I've been washing dishes since I was 5 or 6) and keeping a clean kitchen (thank 717 for teaching me how to hash properly), I'm sure we'll be fine, especially since Tim is also a neat cook.
My roommates aren't horrible people. Eric is a nice guy who doesn't even cook at all because he's in his clinical rotations now, but he's an otherwise neat guy. Kevin's presence in the kitchen is hardly felt at all because he washes what he uses. Hao cooks as well, but also cleans his stuff. Basically, the older residents who are no longer with us contributed a bit to the mess. There is a stack of dishes under the sink that a previous resident left behind because he "didn't have time to wash them."
And as for all that clutter? At some point, it will have to be tossed, but until then, it'll sit there.
Again, it's not because we're horrible people. Sometimes it's just a matter of not knowing what to do with the stuff or being preoccupied with other things. Like the fact that my first final is this coming week.
Pictures Part 2
So this is part 2 of the pictures post (part 1 was the one right before this one, so look for the next oldest entry...I know it can be hard to scroll down and click, but hey, that's life...).
On a side note, just heard a bunch of popping noises -- I'm pretty sure they're gun shots (just GChatted with a military friend of mine). My friend Joe, when he first moved to NY, told me it was like living in a rap music video. Of course, this was Upper West Harlem area and now the Upper East Side, where I believe it's considerably safer.
Anyway, here we go...these are pictures of my room and common area
This is the top half of the desk. When I move to the new room I will try to keep this arrangement, but until then, here it is...
This is the second half of the desk, nothing notable here.
This little beauty is something I got just Friday afternoon. It's a Logitech diNovo wireless keyboard that cost me $20 (after a mail-in rebate). It comes with an on-off switch and runs on 4 AAA batteries (I have rechargeable AAA batteries so things are pretty cheap :) ). I can type on my computer clear across the room, and it barely takes up the drawer. My previous Microsoft Ergonomic 4000 (as much as I loved it) took up the whole drawer and I had to awkwardly angle my hands sometimes to type.
And this is the grand overview. Of course, I've only shown you the place where I work. I'll post a more comprehensive set when I move in to the new room.
Stay tuned for Part 3! And by stay tuned I mean give me 5 minutes....
On a side note, just heard a bunch of popping noises -- I'm pretty sure they're gun shots (just GChatted with a military friend of mine). My friend Joe, when he first moved to NY, told me it was like living in a rap music video. Of course, this was Upper West Harlem area and now the Upper East Side, where I believe it's considerably safer.
Anyway, here we go...these are pictures of my room and common area
This is the top half of the desk. When I move to the new room I will try to keep this arrangement, but until then, here it is...
This is the second half of the desk, nothing notable here.
This little beauty is something I got just Friday afternoon. It's a Logitech diNovo wireless keyboard that cost me $20 (after a mail-in rebate). It comes with an on-off switch and runs on 4 AAA batteries (I have rechargeable AAA batteries so things are pretty cheap :) ). I can type on my computer clear across the room, and it barely takes up the drawer. My previous Microsoft Ergonomic 4000 (as much as I loved it) took up the whole drawer and I had to awkwardly angle my hands sometimes to type.
And this is the grand overview. Of course, I've only shown you the place where I work. I'll post a more comprehensive set when I move in to the new room.
Stay tuned for Part 3! And by stay tuned I mean give me 5 minutes....
Friday, August 28, 2009
Pictures!!
Okay, this post is just going to be pictures. I'll try to update with some content later on. I will post descriptions below each picture because that's the easiest way for me to do this...I think. So it looks like Blogger is shoving my pictures one below each other. I think I just went in the order in which they're shown, so you can ignore some of the "top right, bottom left" business.
So before I show you all the fun stuff, let's take a look at our freezer, shall we? On the left here we have the freezer AFTER we cleaned it out. Tim and I found meat dating back to 2004 (my fingers accidentally typed "1004" at first...I wonder if that's a Freudian Slip). To the right is the bags of trash that came out of the freezer (we filled up the stuff on the left first, then moved towards the right). And yes, the bag on the right is a jumbo garbage bag. And that's just the freezer...the refrigerator was equally bad.
So for orientation, we are all assigned to small groups (these groups of people are the ones with whom I'll be cutting open cadavers in Gross Anatomy so it was good that we took the chance to get to know each other), and we were sent on a "photo hunt" in NYC. Stanford folks, think scavenger hunt minus the fact that you're unleashing 1600 frosh into the city that's completely unprepared for the coming tsunami...
In any case, my group had Times Square, Theater District, and we summarily found a SpongeBob SquarePants and we had to take a picture with him. Of course, since 4 out of 6 of us were Asian, we were also tempted to do the V for victory/Asian tourist peace sign/Asian photo hand sign, but instead, since our team name was "6pac/6pack," we opted instead to do the Chinese way of hand-signing the number 6.
Top right: a bakery somewhere in Times Square (I basically followed people around since they knew the area, and I tried my hardest not to get run over by a car, but thank goodness for "training" in China/Taiwan, where I firmly believe that traffic laws and individual lanes do not exist and where safe driving (to me) really means getting to your destination in the shortest amount of time possible while avoiding denting your car or getting hit by a car/bike/motorcycle/oncoming bus/train/etc. But I digress. I think I was talking about the bakery Magnolia Bakery, which is famous for its cupcakes. I forgot to take pictures on my camera (I have tons of food related pictures on my phone though, but I can't do Facebook mobile uploads...) but they're pretty good.
Actually, random tangent. Dessert shops/bakeries/good eateries abound here in New York. I was talking to my program director about this and she suggested that we (the MD/PhDs and anyone else who was interested) write reviews of desserts that we have eaten at local bakeries and such. She gave me several places to go check out, and it would be fun to play food critic for awhile, especially since I can bring back old high school phrases such as "winout, mediocre at best, random, Orientalism, pwn, own, etc.".
Bottom left, we went to the Marriot Hotel in Times Square and just rested in their lounge bar area, which had the fanciest bar collection I've ever seen (okay, maybe Mantra in Palo Alto was pretty good too). Of course, the bar was closed, but it would have been interesting to try one of their drinks at some point, given the heat and how much we were walking by that point.
Bottom right: view of Times Square from this place that has Steps on it.
So in Union Square there is this store called Max Brenner's that sells chocolate. And all things chocolate. And only all things chocolate. The "pizza" above is basically dough with chocolate stuff on it. There is a chocolate related body spa to it's right. The bottom left holds a bunch of different chocolates you can buy. And on the bottom right are "special" cups used for drinking hot chocolate (aka if you're looking to spend money somewhere 'cause you have too much of it, buy this stuff).
So I had dinner with Tina and Amy one night during the summer at this Greek restaurant called Persephone. Here's the dessert picture...there wasn't much to say about the other stuff :)
So this picture here is just a grilled cheese sandwich I made (with a frying pan no less). It's Mexican Cheddar though, which gave it a nice little kick :). Up on the top right is my ID and on the top left is my watch. The wood beneath the food is my desk :).
I made noodles, eggs, and veggies one night. That's not much else to say...
That's all the pictures I took, folks! I'm sure there are others somewhere on Facebook and Flickr and various other photo compilations, but I'll have to look for them later.
So before I show you all the fun stuff, let's take a look at our freezer, shall we? On the left here we have the freezer AFTER we cleaned it out. Tim and I found meat dating back to 2004 (my fingers accidentally typed "1004" at first...I wonder if that's a Freudian Slip). To the right is the bags of trash that came out of the freezer (we filled up the stuff on the left first, then moved towards the right). And yes, the bag on the right is a jumbo garbage bag. And that's just the freezer...the refrigerator was equally bad.
So for orientation, we are all assigned to small groups (these groups of people are the ones with whom I'll be cutting open cadavers in Gross Anatomy so it was good that we took the chance to get to know each other), and we were sent on a "photo hunt" in NYC. Stanford folks, think scavenger hunt minus the fact that you're unleashing 1600 frosh into the city that's completely unprepared for the coming tsunami...
In any case, my group had Times Square, Theater District, and we summarily found a SpongeBob SquarePants and we had to take a picture with him. Of course, since 4 out of 6 of us were Asian, we were also tempted to do the V for victory/Asian tourist peace sign/Asian photo hand sign, but instead, since our team name was "6pac/6pack," we opted instead to do the Chinese way of hand-signing the number 6.
Top right: a bakery somewhere in Times Square (I basically followed people around since they knew the area, and I tried my hardest not to get run over by a car, but thank goodness for "training" in China/Taiwan, where I firmly believe that traffic laws and individual lanes do not exist and where safe driving (to me) really means getting to your destination in the shortest amount of time possible while avoiding denting your car or getting hit by a car/bike/motorcycle/oncoming bus/train/etc. But I digress. I think I was talking about the bakery Magnolia Bakery, which is famous for its cupcakes. I forgot to take pictures on my camera (I have tons of food related pictures on my phone though, but I can't do Facebook mobile uploads...) but they're pretty good.
Actually, random tangent. Dessert shops/bakeries/good eateries abound here in New York. I was talking to my program director about this and she suggested that we (the MD/PhDs and anyone else who was interested) write reviews of desserts that we have eaten at local bakeries and such. She gave me several places to go check out, and it would be fun to play food critic for awhile, especially since I can bring back old high school phrases such as "winout, mediocre at best, random, Orientalism, pwn, own, etc.".
Bottom left, we went to the Marriot Hotel in Times Square and just rested in their lounge bar area, which had the fanciest bar collection I've ever seen (okay, maybe Mantra in Palo Alto was pretty good too). Of course, the bar was closed, but it would have been interesting to try one of their drinks at some point, given the heat and how much we were walking by that point.
Bottom right: view of Times Square from this place that has Steps on it.
So in Union Square there is this store called Max Brenner's that sells chocolate. And all things chocolate. And only all things chocolate. The "pizza" above is basically dough with chocolate stuff on it. There is a chocolate related body spa to it's right. The bottom left holds a bunch of different chocolates you can buy. And on the bottom right are "special" cups used for drinking hot chocolate (aka if you're looking to spend money somewhere 'cause you have too much of it, buy this stuff).
So I had dinner with Tina and Amy one night during the summer at this Greek restaurant called Persephone. Here's the dessert picture...there wasn't much to say about the other stuff :)
So this picture here is just a grilled cheese sandwich I made (with a frying pan no less). It's Mexican Cheddar though, which gave it a nice little kick :). Up on the top right is my ID and on the top left is my watch. The wood beneath the food is my desk :).
I made noodles, eggs, and veggies one night. That's not much else to say...
That's all the pictures I took, folks! I'm sure there are others somewhere on Facebook and Flickr and various other photo compilations, but I'll have to look for them later.
Friday, August 7, 2009
"New" Address
Apparently things are getting lost in the mail =(.
Try this address
50 East 98th St
Apt 9G6
New York, NY 10029
Hopefully that works. If not I'll just post the Graduate School Office and they will have their mail-lady put it in my box there.
Try this address
50 East 98th St
Apt 9G6
New York, NY 10029
Hopefully that works. If not I'll just post the Graduate School Office and they will have their mail-lady put it in my box there.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Summer Days
Pre-ambling Rambles
I have to say -- Chinatown is really really REALLY cheap. I'm talking about the one in Flushing (which is decidedly far superior to the one in downtown Manhattan). Sea Bass for $4.99/lb?? Salman for ~$3/lb??? It's pretty much a steal compared to the prices around my area. Sadly, the better Chinatown is an hour away, so that pretty much limits my travels there. Otherwise I would go often. Very often.
I finally started using the kitchen too, but everytime I've done so, it's meant having to do nearly a complete cleaning on everything in the kitchen. We'll see how things go though -- we just had a suitemate move out so maybe things will be a lot better in the long haul. In other news, cooked a huge dinner for myself that's probably good for the next 4 meals or so. Pretty simple stuff, took me about 30 minutes to cook. I should probably compete with Rachel Ray for her 30-minute meals show.
The Hershey Store and M&M Store in Times Square
Things can get a little busy in New York, but when you go to Times Square, you really start to see the hustle and bustle flowing to and from the streets and stores and stands. Families, couples, friends, loners, all types of characters and caricatures make there way in a large throng that just surges en masse up and down the streets of Times Square. To exit the flow of people, I feel, is much like exiting from a highway. To do it smoothly, you have to slowly make your way towards the store entrance and out of the flow of traffic. Otherwise, you risk people running into you if you stop abruptly and try to turn into the store.
They've also started setting up these zones in Times Square where pedestrians are able to sit down in the middle of the street on these green chairs (meant for the color of sustainability apparently) to just take a rest. The whole point is to minimize congestion (I'm pretty sure they mean pedestrian traffic to move the slower people away from the sidewalks and into the greener areas where they are supposed to amble slowly along as the masses fast walk their way to their destination on the sides). What's ended up happening is the car density on the streets have gotten a lot higher, but what's new? I've been playing Human Frogger since Day 1 in New York...and it's all comparable to the car traffic in China/Taiwan.
But I digress...if you guys ever come to New York, you should definitely visit Times Square. They have a Hershey Store and an M&M Store with huge pillars filled with M&M's of various colors. To access those delightful teeny bits, you simply go up to a pillar with a plastic bag, pull the lever, and BAM! M&Ms of your color choice fall into your bag. I think you're charged by the ounce, but having spent my chocolate budget at the Hershey store already, I didn't bother buying M&Ms...
NYC Restaurant Week
Yet another reason to come to New York -- Restaurant Week. Basically, all the classier restaurants in New York will put out a prix fixe menu ($24 for lunch and $35 for dinner) and you get to choose what you want for a 3-course meal. It's excellently priced (given New York), and definitely a way for us poor graduate students to feel as if we were living the high life. That I went to 3 Restaurant Week dinners (Atlantic Grill, Persephone, Delmonico's) is a testament either to my love of eating, my love of good food, my inability to resist splurging on food, the great deals, or maybe all of the above. Either way, I was very satisfied those 2 weeks and definitely did not eat much else those days to prepare my appetite for the food =).
---
It's a little sad that I'm going to be leaving the lab soon. I've been in the lab from 9am-8pm with the other post-docs, a masters student, another MSTP student (my year), and the PI, and it's been a blast learning science from all these people, talking about our experiments, and really noticing just how much at the forefront Mount Sinai is in medical research. I won't go too much into detail about what I've done, but there have been some huge strides in tumor immunology and cancer therapies and there will be a lot more going on, and I never thought of myself as ever having anything to do with cancer research, but given my experiences in this lab (of which I will blog more about later so that I can return to those thoughts later when I make my final decision), it's definitely something I would like to investigate even further.
That's all for now folks! I wish I had more, but I really don't. I guess I'll do more touristy things at some point and take pictures if I can.
I have to say -- Chinatown is really really REALLY cheap. I'm talking about the one in Flushing (which is decidedly far superior to the one in downtown Manhattan). Sea Bass for $4.99/lb?? Salman for ~$3/lb??? It's pretty much a steal compared to the prices around my area. Sadly, the better Chinatown is an hour away, so that pretty much limits my travels there. Otherwise I would go often. Very often.
I finally started using the kitchen too, but everytime I've done so, it's meant having to do nearly a complete cleaning on everything in the kitchen. We'll see how things go though -- we just had a suitemate move out so maybe things will be a lot better in the long haul. In other news, cooked a huge dinner for myself that's probably good for the next 4 meals or so. Pretty simple stuff, took me about 30 minutes to cook. I should probably compete with Rachel Ray for her 30-minute meals show.
The Hershey Store and M&M Store in Times Square
Things can get a little busy in New York, but when you go to Times Square, you really start to see the hustle and bustle flowing to and from the streets and stores and stands. Families, couples, friends, loners, all types of characters and caricatures make there way in a large throng that just surges en masse up and down the streets of Times Square. To exit the flow of people, I feel, is much like exiting from a highway. To do it smoothly, you have to slowly make your way towards the store entrance and out of the flow of traffic. Otherwise, you risk people running into you if you stop abruptly and try to turn into the store.
They've also started setting up these zones in Times Square where pedestrians are able to sit down in the middle of the street on these green chairs (meant for the color of sustainability apparently) to just take a rest. The whole point is to minimize congestion (I'm pretty sure they mean pedestrian traffic to move the slower people away from the sidewalks and into the greener areas where they are supposed to amble slowly along as the masses fast walk their way to their destination on the sides). What's ended up happening is the car density on the streets have gotten a lot higher, but what's new? I've been playing Human Frogger since Day 1 in New York...and it's all comparable to the car traffic in China/Taiwan.
But I digress...if you guys ever come to New York, you should definitely visit Times Square. They have a Hershey Store and an M&M Store with huge pillars filled with M&M's of various colors. To access those delightful teeny bits, you simply go up to a pillar with a plastic bag, pull the lever, and BAM! M&Ms of your color choice fall into your bag. I think you're charged by the ounce, but having spent my chocolate budget at the Hershey store already, I didn't bother buying M&Ms...
NYC Restaurant Week
Yet another reason to come to New York -- Restaurant Week. Basically, all the classier restaurants in New York will put out a prix fixe menu ($24 for lunch and $35 for dinner) and you get to choose what you want for a 3-course meal. It's excellently priced (given New York), and definitely a way for us poor graduate students to feel as if we were living the high life. That I went to 3 Restaurant Week dinners (Atlantic Grill, Persephone, Delmonico's) is a testament either to my love of eating, my love of good food, my inability to resist splurging on food, the great deals, or maybe all of the above. Either way, I was very satisfied those 2 weeks and definitely did not eat much else those days to prepare my appetite for the food =).
---
It's a little sad that I'm going to be leaving the lab soon. I've been in the lab from 9am-8pm with the other post-docs, a masters student, another MSTP student (my year), and the PI, and it's been a blast learning science from all these people, talking about our experiments, and really noticing just how much at the forefront Mount Sinai is in medical research. I won't go too much into detail about what I've done, but there have been some huge strides in tumor immunology and cancer therapies and there will be a lot more going on, and I never thought of myself as ever having anything to do with cancer research, but given my experiences in this lab (of which I will blog more about later so that I can return to those thoughts later when I make my final decision), it's definitely something I would like to investigate even further.
That's all for now folks! I wish I had more, but I really don't. I guess I'll do more touristy things at some point and take pictures if I can.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Mi Clase de Medicina En Espanol
I'm taking a Medical Spanish class!
It's a little hard at first, but slowly I'm getting back into the groove of things. Of course, I still can't carry on a normal conversation, but at least I know enough words to let patients know I'm trying.
"Hola, soy un estudiante de medicina. Como puedo ayudarlo?"
I think...
It's a little hard at first, but slowly I'm getting back into the groove of things. Of course, I still can't carry on a normal conversation, but at least I know enough words to let patients know I'm trying.
"Hola, soy un estudiante de medicina. Como puedo ayudarlo?"
I think...
Monday, July 13, 2009
Elevator Pet Peeve #1
So in New York, it feels like it's easy for people to be irritable and complain a lot. At least, I hear people complaining a lot, whether I'm walking down the street or going up/down an elevator.
Well, I guess it's my turn now, but there's only one.
Elevators. Great inventions, really. Beats having to hoist a refrigerator up several flights of stairs, falling down a flight of stairs, etc.
But...why do people have to take elevators to go one floor up or down...???
That happens a lot here. I'm not sure why...but it happens...
And it's a waste of my time.
So I now am the last person to push the button on the elevator. I work on the 13th floor. If someone pushes 12 or 14, I just take the stairs up or down.
And that's my silent protest of people who use elevators for 1 flight rides.
And yes, you could extrapolate that to wondering why I just don't take all 13 flights of stairs straight down to the first floor (or up).
I still haven't gotten there. I'll be sure to let you know when I do =)
Well, I guess it's my turn now, but there's only one.
Elevators. Great inventions, really. Beats having to hoist a refrigerator up several flights of stairs, falling down a flight of stairs, etc.
But...why do people have to take elevators to go one floor up or down...???
That happens a lot here. I'm not sure why...but it happens...
And it's a waste of my time.
So I now am the last person to push the button on the elevator. I work on the 13th floor. If someone pushes 12 or 14, I just take the stairs up or down.
And that's my silent protest of people who use elevators for 1 flight rides.
And yes, you could extrapolate that to wondering why I just don't take all 13 flights of stairs straight down to the first floor (or up).
I still haven't gotten there. I'll be sure to let you know when I do =)
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Getting to know you...
So I have no idea what to call my posts. I'm sure I'll figure something out at some point, but until then, I apologize for the non-creative writing and the inability to capture your attention. Hopefully my descriptions will be good enough...
These past few weeks have been a general theme of "getting to know you" (and yes, feel free to start singing if you happen to know the song :) ).
The night before our program orientation, we first-years had dinner with the director of program, Dr. Satlin, and her administrative assistant, Rhaisili. As I said before, the dirty secret about Mount Sinai's MD/PhD program is our love of food, both eating and making it. For dinner, we made deviled eggs, caesar salad (dressing was made from scratch courtesy of my friend Jon - thanks buddy!), and pasta (whole wheat spaghetti noodles...nothing too special). The pasta sauce was definitely a combo'ed creation, a mix of my friend Kate's original recipe and one of the girls in our program (Kimbie).
Essentially, I think that dinner defined our group dynamic: everything was team-oriented and usually there wasn't a leader so much as it was an idea and then everyone jumped to put it into action and bring it into existence. The fruit of our labors was a fantastic dinner party =). I wish I had pictures...but I don't. Actually, I still don't have a camera, come to think of it.
A highlight for the night: I acquired a cello! I asked Dr. Satlin if she knew of any stores in the area, and she said to me "actually, there's a cello right behind you in my closet...". So now I have it, and I'll be installing fine tuners and an end-pin in addition to getting a bow, a hard case, and a new set of strings. It's a bit pricey, but I'm holding onto this during my 8-year (read: eternal) stay...
Orientation really wasn't too exciting, so there's not much to say. However, one of our MD/PhD advisers, Dr. Ben Chen, was an undergrad from Stanford (class of 1990 if I remember correctly), and another one of our advisers, Dr. Miriam Merad, was a post-doc in both Irv Weissman's and Ed Engleman's labs. That's like...wow. In case you guys didn't know, Weissman and Engleman happen to be 2 of the biggest PI's at Stanford. I think my ultimate point is that there's a Stanford connection =).
Speaking of connections, as my brain makes this huge mental leap across synapses, it turns out that out of the 11 people in our first-year class, 5 of us are from CA (well, 1 of them went to college at CalTech, but still...)! Sadly, they're all originally from SoCal, but I think I'll live...
By the way, if you guys ever get the chance, you should definitely come to NY to see the fireworks. At least for me, they were definitely spectacular and the crowds of people afterwards amazed me -- I don't think I've seen a surge of people that...dense...before.
Oh, the most exciting part: I went to the other Chinatown in Flushing today! Found a nice little 湯包 place and I got to eat my 鹹豆漿 and 蔥油餅. And then I finally got 珍珠奶茶. Basically, if that smattering of Chinese didn't clue you in...I found Asian food after not having it for about a week. I also think I found the Asian supermarket for me to go shopping for groceries, but I should probably look for something closer...
Okay, I think that's it. At some point, when it's ready, I'll show you some cool stuff from lab, but until then, these are just small blurbs about what I'm up to. I apologize that the writing style isn't too good -- it's been far too long since I have written, but I'll try to get the narrative style down as I continue writing.
These past few weeks have been a general theme of "getting to know you" (and yes, feel free to start singing if you happen to know the song :) ).
The night before our program orientation, we first-years had dinner with the director of program, Dr. Satlin, and her administrative assistant, Rhaisili. As I said before, the dirty secret about Mount Sinai's MD/PhD program is our love of food, both eating and making it. For dinner, we made deviled eggs, caesar salad (dressing was made from scratch courtesy of my friend Jon - thanks buddy!), and pasta (whole wheat spaghetti noodles...nothing too special). The pasta sauce was definitely a combo'ed creation, a mix of my friend Kate's original recipe and one of the girls in our program (Kimbie).
Essentially, I think that dinner defined our group dynamic: everything was team-oriented and usually there wasn't a leader so much as it was an idea and then everyone jumped to put it into action and bring it into existence. The fruit of our labors was a fantastic dinner party =). I wish I had pictures...but I don't. Actually, I still don't have a camera, come to think of it.
A highlight for the night: I acquired a cello! I asked Dr. Satlin if she knew of any stores in the area, and she said to me "actually, there's a cello right behind you in my closet...". So now I have it, and I'll be installing fine tuners and an end-pin in addition to getting a bow, a hard case, and a new set of strings. It's a bit pricey, but I'm holding onto this during my 8-year (read: eternal) stay...
Orientation really wasn't too exciting, so there's not much to say. However, one of our MD/PhD advisers, Dr. Ben Chen, was an undergrad from Stanford (class of 1990 if I remember correctly), and another one of our advisers, Dr. Miriam Merad, was a post-doc in both Irv Weissman's and Ed Engleman's labs. That's like...wow. In case you guys didn't know, Weissman and Engleman happen to be 2 of the biggest PI's at Stanford. I think my ultimate point is that there's a Stanford connection =).
Speaking of connections, as my brain makes this huge mental leap across synapses, it turns out that out of the 11 people in our first-year class, 5 of us are from CA (well, 1 of them went to college at CalTech, but still...)! Sadly, they're all originally from SoCal, but I think I'll live...
By the way, if you guys ever get the chance, you should definitely come to NY to see the fireworks. At least for me, they were definitely spectacular and the crowds of people afterwards amazed me -- I don't think I've seen a surge of people that...dense...before.
Oh, the most exciting part: I went to the other Chinatown in Flushing today! Found a nice little 湯包 place and I got to eat my 鹹豆漿 and 蔥油餅. And then I finally got 珍珠奶茶. Basically, if that smattering of Chinese didn't clue you in...I found Asian food after not having it for about a week. I also think I found the Asian supermarket for me to go shopping for groceries, but I should probably look for something closer...
Okay, I think that's it. At some point, when it's ready, I'll show you some cool stuff from lab, but until then, these are just small blurbs about what I'm up to. I apologize that the writing style isn't too good -- it's been far too long since I have written, but I'll try to get the narrative style down as I continue writing.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Thunder, Chinatown, First Move In, Little Italy, Cookoff!
Sadly, no pictures will accompany any of the text below. So, if you're a visual person, I apologize. But at least be glad that I'm not subjecting you to my attempts at translating all that I write into mangled Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish. I've tried that before. It...doesn't work out so well. In any case, I'll try to subdivide this into sections so you can scroll past boring parts. I don't quite have the patience to relearn how to do html anchors, so I can't href you straight to a particular section.
Thursday, June 25 -- Move-In Day
I landed in JFK at 6:10 AM EST. Considering the amount of sleep I got at Stanford, this was fine. I had mentally prepared myself for the lack of sleep on the red-eye but certainly did not anticipate the poor crying/screaming baby whose mother was clearly somewhere else (mentally, that is) during the entire flight. For those of you who've seen me when I'm high on caffeine and low on sleep, don't worry. This time, I was only low on sleep.
The thing to keep in mind before I subject you to textual representation of my apartment is that I moved into an apartment already occupied by 4 other guys. I had previously emailed them to ask if they needed anything. Written at the very bottom of that list of needs (which included, by the way, "bomb" cooking spices, alcohol, game consoles, television, and others) was "kitchen cleaner." I took that to mean they needed a maid or some variation thereof but also tried to assure myself that they only needed some Clorox wipes and 405 Kitchen Counter Spray.
Nope. They definitely needed a maid. I walked into the apartment (which is a 6 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1 kitchen, 1 common area apartment -- for only $590 a month in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, btw) and found a sink full of dirty dishes (with another stuck in the cabinet under the sink), a refrigerator that needed a great deal of Arm&Hammer Baking Soda and that also screamed "EMPTY ME! IT SMELLS!" to both myself and my suitemate Tim (Tim, by the way, is also an incoming MD-PhD who happens to like cooking. Needless to say, we became very fast friends and co-gamers).
The apartment was otherwise alright with the usual issues one finds when you have an old building and where some things are of the "if we can bear with it, we won't fix it" variety.
But that's enough about the apartment. It's basically something that can only be explained in pictures. And there will be pictures, as Tim and I will be spending a part of Sunday cleaning it up and I plan to have him take a set of "before" and "after" pictures.
The suitemates are really cool. There's a guy named Mert (who's leaving on Monday to start a second post-doc at UCSF) who is from Turkey; A PhD named Kevin (whom we virtually never see -- typical); An international medical student from Brazil named Tiago (I can't even pronounce it correctly, much less spell it here...) who's leaving on Sunday to go back to Brazil and start residency; Steven, a PhD who is from Stockton, CA and who is currently still in CA for a bachelor party if I heard him correctly; and Eric, who had sublet his apartment to Tiago so he could go somewhere else to study for Board Exams. That's basically all I know about them and considering that Tiago, Mert, and Steven are leaving before the end of July, I don't know too much else otherwise. Eric does arrive tomorrow though, about an hour before Tiago leaves, so I'll know a bit more about him then.
The rest of the day would be pretty uneventful. I got registered (have a Sinai badge now; it's official! I'm a med student!), filled out some more security forms, etc.
Friday, June 26 -- The Second Day
I got to hear thunder Friday night! Coming from CA, I've been told I don't know what real thunder sounds like, and I got to hear it! The lightning flashed, and then literally 1 second later the thunder came! It was incredible (minus the fact that Tim had gone out running 10 minutes before and came back looking about as wet as the time Testimony threw me in The Claw for my birthday...), and I definitely want to take some pictures with his SLR when the next thunderstorm hits. I saw lightning dancing between clouds before flying down at lightning speed (no less).
Okay, that was the night, but what about morning? Turns out Central Park is a really nice place to go for a morning job, especially if you like dogs. Dogs...everywhere (with owners who have leashes and poop bags, thankfully). All kinds, colors, shapes, and sizes.
So Friday also happened to be the day I met with the director of our program and next Tuesday, we're having a pre-orientation get together (program starts July 1 and orientation is July 1) and we're going to make dinner for ourselves and the director. More to come about that later.
Saturday, June 27 -- Chinatown & Little Italy
If I had pictures...
But I don't.
Chinatown and Little Italy happen to be right next to each other in downtown Manhattan and whereas Little Italy is characterized by the sheer number of restaurants, Chinatown is characterized by the number of "variety" gift shops that cell various asian items, from katanas, to fans, to buddhas, to "slimming teas", etc. This was the first day I had Chinese food while in NY, and it was pretty good, though I'm hoping for more/better later on. Got my hands on some Hello Pandas and Lychee Jelly's, and I managed to introduce Tim to Milk Tea (Boba is next), mochi, and 蛋塔.
We also found this nice little Cheesecake store called Eileen's "Special" Cheesecake. It's a great little store and the cakes there taste phenomenal. Definitely going back.
That pretty much took over the whole day -- I'll be posting some pictures when I can.
Peace.
Friday, June 26, 2009
New address, new beginnings
In a few months, my @stanford.edu address deactivates.
If you would like, feel free to email me at *drumroll...*
david.chiang@mssm.edu
I know it's not terribly inventive, but that's how the boring computer over at Sinai works. I guess I can't complain, as they're giving me a pretty good education.
If you would like to send me snail mail, care packages, not-so-caring care packages, etc. the address is
50 East 98th St.
Apt 8J1
New York, NY 10029
You all know my name, of course -- that's not going to change anytime soon. Neither is my cell number. Oh, and big news: THE CELL PHONE HAS RECEPTION IN NEW YORK.
Okay, that's it for the first post. I just moved in yesterday (6/25), so I'll be posting some thoughts about that as well.
Keep grooving, dancing, singing, reading, writing, studying, MCATing, teaching, and keeping it real ya'll!
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